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Their front yard was torn up after replacing a sewer line, so instead of replacing the dirt with grass, one Oak Park woman put in a vegetable garden and now the city is seeing green.

The list goes on: fresh basil, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, cumbers and more all filling five large planter boxes that fill the Bass family’s front yard.

Julie Bass says, “We thought we’re minding our own business, doing something not ostentatious and certainly not obnoxious or nothing that is a blight on the neighborhood, so we didn’t think people would care very much.”

But some cared very much and called the city. The city then sent out code enforcement.

“They warned us at first that we had to move the vegetables from the front, that no vegetables were allowed in the front yard. We didn’t move them because we didn’t think we were doing anything wrong, even according to city code we didn’t think we were doing anything wrong. So they ticketed us and charged me with a misdemeanor,” Bass said . . .

City code says that all unpaved portions of the site shall be planted with grass or ground cover or shrubbery or other suitable live plant material. Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are what Basses see as suitable.

However, Oak Park’s Planning and Technology Director Kevin Rulkowski says the city disagrees. He says, “If you look at the dictionary, suitable means common. You can look all throughout the city and you’ll never find another vegetable garden that consumes the entire front yard.”

This is the city here, not an HOA. Now, I don't live in downtown Denver or anything but it's dead common where I live to see veggie gardens in front and turf and recreational space around back.

Here we're glad for them. This is a hippie haven and while some of them do interesting and creative things with their property, others look like a dilapidated microbus in a roadside ditch. There's a difference between xeriscaping and just not cutting your grass/weeds for two years. One guy has edged his yard with old hospital bed rails. Another has "War is not the answer." painted all over his house and fence. I'm surprised no one has thought to arrange old washing machines to look like Stonehenge.

Here we're glad for them. This is a hippie haven and while some of them do interesting and creative things with their property, others look like a dilapidated microbus in a roadside ditch. There's a difference between xeriscaping and just not cutting your grass/weeds for two years. One guy has edged his yard with old hospital bed rails. Another has "War is not the answer." painted all over his house and fence. I'm surprised no one has thought to arrange old washing machines to look like Stonehenge.

I get that kind of thing but growing food for your own table ought to get a pass. Tomato plants and corn aren't notably "uglier" than Joe Pye weed, cosmos, or ornamental amaranthus. If the problem is the bare dirt between the boxes, just make them pave it, mulch it, or turf it.

I get that kind of thing but growing food for your own table ought to get a pass. Tomato plants and corn aren't notably "uglier" than Joe Pye weed, cosmos, or ornamental amaranthus. If the problem is the bare dirt between the boxes, just make them pave it, mulch it, or turf it.

That's true, and I have grown tomatoes in my front yard because my back yard os too shady. Problem was, I was thinking like a Marylander and planted them on Easter Sunday... so I was growing out of season and it was a lot of work to keep them from burning up. For years I've been promising my neighbor I was going to plant corn, just to annoy her.

Jeez. I mean look at the house. We're not talking about some kind of real upscale neighborhood where the neighbors are trying to get a million bucks for their house. It's an ordinary house in an ordinary neighborhood. Let it go, I say.

BTW: Our vegetable garden is a lot like hers, in raised boxes and all. Works well.

That's true, and I have grown tomatoes in my front yard because my back yard os too shady. Problem was, I was thinking like a Marylander and planted them on Easter Sunday... so I was growing out of season and it was a lot of work to keep them from burning up. For years I've been promising my neighbor I was going to plant corn, just to annoy her.

Oak Park is a suburb on Detroit's north side. It used to be a mostly jewish area, and now is more of a mix of working blacks escaping the city (so their kids can go to better schools) and immigrants from the middle east. The best sign of this is that the former synagog on Coolidge is now an MBE church.

There is still a hassidic jewish population on the west side, where OP borders Southfield.